Parallax Robotics with Blockly PD Course

February 1 - February 2

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This course is geared toward middle school and high school educators, though all educators middle school through college are invited to apply. The Robotics with BlocklyProp course will be an engaging two-day STEM Professional Development featuring Blockly graphical programming and the ActivityBot robot.

Join Parallax’s educational team for a hands-on exploration of BlocklyProp—our new implementation of the Google Blockly visual programming language. Learn about robotics and product design using the Propeller multicore microcontroller, ActivityBot robot, sensors, and displays. Parallax’s BlocklyProp system provides a solution for running a class where students can use graphical programming or C. Students who have used Scratch or Blockly for screen programming will pick up this tool quite easily. This flexibility speeds skill acquisition, reduces frustration, and provides a STEM/STEAM learning experience where students can achieve success in a short class period but also develop bigger semester-long projects and designs.

The ActivityBot will be built and programmed and then we’ll move to a project-specific focus. It will include discussion and tips for implementing these topics into your classroom.

Learning objectives: build and program an ActivityBot; program a microcontroller by writing programs that display messages, remember values, make computations with math operators, and interact with external circuits; and build circuits to apply principles of electronics, including voltage, resistance, current, signal generation, and signal monitoring.

Parallax tutorials, standards correlations, and an answer key for educators. We will show you how to apply our Blockly system in semester-long courses with a specific parts kit and syllabus.

Have questions about our robots and educational resources? Call the Parallax Educator Hotline at 916-625-6801 or email education@parallax.com.

*Fee subject to change without notice per FPU policy, credits are pass/no-pass, credits take at least 4 weeks to process, transcripts must be requested directly from FPU.